ARC
by 5th Dimension
Summary: Ten years after the best ending, a new robot wakes up in the island, where a man has found the long-thought destroyed Demon Crown. Rated T for violence.
1. Chapter 1: Awakening

**This story occurs after the best ending, the one where Curly, Quote, and Balrog all decide to live in a place with a view.**

**I do not own Cave Story.**

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><p><span>Chapter 1: Awakening<span>

There was a slight beeping noise, and the phrase 'back-up initiation complete' flashed in front of his eyes.

He woke up in a small cavern that had a tunnel leading out of it. Frowning, he tried to remember how he got there. Frowning even deeper, he found out that he couldn't recall _anything_: his family, friends, name, or even his gender.

At that thought, he looked down at his body. There wasn't much to tell from it. He was wearing jeans, a red T-shirt, hiking boots, and gloves.

This wasn't going anywhere. Looking around, he realized that he shouldn't have been able to see. There weren't any light sources that were visible. There was a small pool of water (He was surprised. How could he remember the name of a random liquid, but nothing specific about his past?) and he went over to it, glancing at his reflection.

He was obviously a boy, and he had short, dark blonde hair and strange green coverings over his ears. Or were they his ears? He decided not to mess with them.

Looking at his clothes, he decided that the gloves were an inconvenience. He needed all the grip he could get if he was in danger, somehow. He didn't know where he was, why he was here, or even his name, but he knew that it would be no good to block his reflexes with gloves.

Taking them off, he realized that he had something tattooed onto his pale skin.

Au-

Ro-

Ch-

It looked like it was an acronym for something, but whatever it was had been mostly rubbed away- it looked like something had cut that part of his skin off and it had healed.

However, the letters on his hand suggested a name for him, and he took it willingly. A.R.C? He would be known as Arc.

Now he turned his attention away from his identity. He could figure out something later. For now, he needed to get out of here.

Arc ran out of the small cave, through the tunnel.

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><p>Flying around him were bats, and jumping out of nowhere were strange, lumpy, gray creatures. He dodged these as best as he could, for he did not know how they would affect him.<p>

Arc reached a crossroad. To the left, he couldn't see anything, not even with _his_ excellent vision. The black just went on forever. To the right, he saw a strange statue. It was shaped like a giant tiger's head. It was huge, and there was an opening in its mouth, suggesting that it was a dwelling of some sort.

Arc was excited. If it was a house, there would be people there! Maybe they could tell him what he was doing there!

Arc went into the tiger's maw.

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><p>There <em>were<em> people in it! They didn't look like Arc, but they were people, nonetheless!

There was a very old man and a chubby boy. They were both fast asleep in their chairs.

Arc tried for at least half an hour (he didn't know why he knew precisely the amount of time that had elapsed) to wake them up. He tried yelling, he tried smacking, and he even tried dumping water on them.

The two could probably sleep through an earthquake, a hurricane, and a nuclear bomb if they all went off in this cave all at once.

Arc was a little disappointed. Where they on some sort of sleep medication? He shook his head, and in doing so, he spotted a wooden chest in the back.

Arc guessed that there were probably clothes inside it, but he was still angry at the old man and the fat boy for sleeping when he was in need of their help, so he went over and opened it up.

The only thing that was inside of it was a strange-looking gun.

Arc stumbled backwards. He didn't know whose voice was going through his head, but he heard it clearly. _"…guns are the most dangerous thing ever! Why… when I was younger, I nearly destroyed the floating island with a tiny pea-shooter!"_

It was a memory, albeit an incomplete one, but it did provide a bit of information. He knew someone who had told him about the dangers of guns (what in the world was 'the floating island?'). However…

Arc looked at the gun in the chest. If he was going to get past the gray things and the bats, he was going to need to learn how to shoot.

Arc picked it up and looked at the barrel. It was a pistol. Hmm… there didn't seem to be a place to put ammunition in, anywhere. And besides, there wasn't any ammo in the chest.

Arc pointed it at the entrance of the dwelling, and pulled the trigger once.

Two beams shot out, zigzagging towards the entrance and making a _pht_ noise.

Arc smiled. This thing's clip was infinite. This would be very useful to use on those critters.

There was a word on the handle. Arc read it. '_Polar Scatterspray_.'

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><p>The Polar-S, as Arc called it, was very useful. Every time a gray thing jumped towards him, he pointed and shot. The two beams that shot out every time crisscrossed back over each other repeatedly like many XXXs, making it very difficult to miss. The bats and small jumping animals didn't stand a chance. The only thing he didn't like was the short range.<p>

He went back to the fork and this time went left, down the dark place.

When he had gone no farther than one hundred feet, he spotted a door. It was just a regular door in a wall to the side, but it wasn't at the end of the long passageway. Nevertheless, Arc went in.

It was just a small room that had a platform hanging over a pool of water. It didn't look all that important.

So he went back out, wondering what the room could possibly have been used for.

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><p>Just slightly beyond the empty room's door was a large group of gray creatures in front of a door that <em>was<em> at the end of the tunnel. Arc shot his Polar-S at them and destroyed them, one by one.

He walked up to the door, all confident.

The door opened and hit him in the face.

"OW!" The door had opened by itself, and hurt him!

Getting angry, he shot the door with his gun. The wood burst apart in a jiffy. That was one way to make an entrance.

Beyond was a cliff, made out of a slightly yellower stone. Arc walked to the edge and looked down. Below was a bustling village, with at least fifty houses.

The ground gave away beneath Arc's feet. _Oops_.

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><p>"Jack, I'm telling you, there's no way that we can reason with the guadi! Too many mimiga have been eaten to even <em>consider<em> reasoning with them!"

The green-goggled mimiga sighed. "And I'm telling you, Roxil, that cooperation between all of the races: mimiga, gaudi, greencloaks, humans, robots, and even whatever the heck Balrog is, is essential! As sad as I am at my villagers' deaths, I am not going to make King's mistake and cut off contact with outsiders!"

Roxil didn't look happy at this statement. "Maybe you're too influenced by King's death to see the proper path of-"

Arc made a nice distraction by landing right between them. "Ow…"

Roxil panicked. "Argh! A gaudi!" He fled.

Jack jumped, but remained next to the fallen person. "Um… huh?"

Arc looked up. This person looked very strange, nothing like the two in the lion's head. He was wearing an aviator's jacket and green goggles, and had bunny-ears and white fur all over his body. "Um… sorry for dropping in…"

Jack smiled. "Haha! That was like the time King told me about when Quote dropped in on King and Toroko!" The mimiga started to chuckle heartily.

Arc was confused. A king? A quote? Somebody named Toroko? What was this strange person talking about?

Jack looked at Arc's expression and grinned. "I'm sorry. You must be new here. I'm Jack. I'm the number one in this village."

Arc nodded. Finally, someone in charge! "I am Arc… I think."

Jack tilted his head. "What? You don't know your own name?"

"Well… I…"

There was an explosion in the center of the village.

Jack turned around quickly. "What was that?"

A man came out of the blast center, clutching a blue helmet-type object. "YES!"

Jack gasped. That was… that thing that the Doctor had ten years ago!

Arc remained confused. "Why is he excited by a weird hat?"

Jack was still frozen in shock. It didn't make any sense. Quote and Curly had destroyed that thing when they took out the sorcerer Ballos!

Jack ran to a strange looking device on a building wall, and put it up to his mouth. "Emergency code 0001! Destroy the human in the center of Mimiga Village at all costs!"

Mimiga ran out of their houses, clutching spears and swords. There were about two hundred mimiga to the one human in the village square.

Now Arc was really bewildered. "What's going on? Why are…"

The human waved his hand, and instantly the first wave of attackers was blown away. Arc gasped. He didn't know what was going on, but the man was showing overwhelming power just by moving his arms!

The human teleported now, appearing in front of Jack. "_It_ tells me that you're the leader. If I take you out now, know what that'll mean? Chaos, destruction, ruin. Beautiful pandemonium. So, Jack, why don't you die?"

The man moved his hand at Jack and there was an audible _crack_. Jack fell down dead, his neck snapped.

Arc was furious. He raised his gun, intending to strike down this man for killing a potential friend.

The man was wearing the helmet, now. "You think to kill me with such a device? I think I'll come back later, then." He teleported, and Arc shot too late.

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><p>A dozen mimiga were carrying Jack's body on a stretcher held above their heads. Arc didn't understand it very well, but he knew that this was a funeral procession.<p>

They carried Jack through a hole in the wall, which had a sign posted that said, 'Mimiga Cemetery.'

All of the mimiga followed behind, and Arc followed too, seething. The way that guy had just removed Jack made him mad. He was going to take down that guy. That human had no right to destroy anyone's lives…

Arc was close when the mimiga set down Jack. One of them, Roxil, was muttering to himself. Arc could see a few tombstones, and he read off the names and descriptions.

'Here rests the true mimiga hero, Arthur.'

'Here lies the hero's sister, may she rest in peace. Toroko.'

'Here is a brave mimiga who died to stop the doctor. Here is King.'

King's grave had a sword resting on it, causing Arc to wonder how this 'mimiga' was different than the rest.

The mimiga were already leaving. A couple of them stayed, and started to dig a grave. Arc left.

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><p>The man appeared in the throne room, smiling. This was the place where his predecessors sat, and the place where the Demon Crown wished to be. It was here that he and his servants would take over the surface, as that was what the Crown was for.<p>

Each one of the Demon Crown's wearers had tried to take over the surface in the past, but he was the one who would succeed, and not through such means as force-feeding little bunny-men flowers.

"SERVANTS!"

For a moment, nothing happened. And then, a blue-haired teenager appeared out of nowhere. "What? Huh? What's going on? What are you…?" She stopped as she looked at the Crown on his head. "No… that's not… no…"

The man nodded. "Yes, girl. I am your new master. But wasn't there supposed to be one other?"

A giant brick-shaped thing dropped from the sky. "Oh, yeaaaaaaaaaah!"

Then Balrog looked at the Crown. "Oh, noooooooooo!"

The man smiled. "Welcome, Misery, Balrog. It's nice to know that the Crown's control is still intact."

Misery shivered. The nightmares had started up again. She was a slave once more. "Eh… what might we call you?"

The human laughed. "Master, of course, but if you want my name, it's Darius."

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><p><strong>This is the story of Arc. This first Chapter seems a little short to me. This may be very reminiscent of Cave Story, but it <em>is<em> different.**


	2. Chapter 2: Robot

**This is Chapter 2. **

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><p><span>Chapter 2: Robot<span>

Arc covered his ears. It was way too loud in here for him.

After Jack's funeral, the mimiga had all headed towards the Assembly Hall that was right outside the cemetery. Once there, the entire population had started to fight with each other, and none more so then Roxil, who immediately made a move towards isolation.

"This sort of thing is what comes from allowing outsiders into our midst!"

Arc didn't care one way or another. He just wanted quiet.

"Jack was one of the best we could have hoped for. Do you want to give the new Demon Crown holder a chance to wipe us all out?"

The word 'Demon Crown' echoed through Arc's head. He was sure he had heard it before his memory got wiped, but what was it?

"We should… EAT THE PIE!"

Now it was getting too random in this crowded area. Arc left. No one cared about the tiny person that had dropped out of the sky.

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><p>"Excuse me…"<p>

Arc looked down. It was a little girl mimiga, who looked to be very young.

"Yes?"

"Are you Quote the hero, Mr. Robot?"

Arc was a little confused. He was a robot? "I'm a robot?"

The little mimiga nodded her head. "Yeah, you're a robot! You have those a-ten-n-n-na things on your ears."

Arc looked at his body in a new light. Vision in total darkness? The ability to tell time as accurately as a watch or stopwatch? The curious power to know just how far a distance was? Lightning reflexes? Huh. He was a robot. "Wait… what did you call me?"

The girl smiled. "Are you Quote?"

Arc shook his head. "I'm Arc. This 'Quote' is another robot, right? Do you know where he is?"

The mimiga girl looked disappointed. "He's probably on the Surface with his true love!"

She ran off. Arc was a little puzzled. Robots with true loves? Robots were machines… metal and plastic… so how exactly did one have love? He decided it didn't matter.

Also, what exactly was 'the Surface?'

There was an uproar from the Assembly Hall. A mimiga marched out, shaking his head. "Morons, the lot of them."

Arc went up to him. "Hey, can you help me?"

The mimiga turned towards him. He wore brown glasses and a ragged suit. "Sure. Anything to get my mind off of those people."

Arc almost did a victory dance. Finally, someone is helping him! "I woke up in a cave… up there…" Arc pointed. "I seem to have lost my memory. I know I'm a robot, and that something bad happened, or rather someone, and he killed Jack, the leader of this village. I'm afraid I don't know much else."

The ragged person looked Arc up and down. "Some story. Reminds me of the Cave Story."

"Cave Story?"

"Never mind. What you should know is that this is Mimiga Village, and it's at a central point in the island. There are several other villages throughout the island…"

"Island?"

"Yeah. This entire cave complex is part of a giant floating island in the sky."

Arc gasped. His first returned memory had mentioned a floating island… and that it was almost destroyed by a…pea-shooter?

The mimiga continued. "Most of the robots, like yourself, have left the island or been destroyed, although that was the result of a war twenty years ago. The most famous robots, of course, are Curly Brace and Quote, who went to the very center of the island to destroy some sorcerer named Ballos who was bent on crashing this island to the ground. If you really want help, you should go see them. They live on the Surface, though… If you really would like this village's assistance, you should go and defeat the new Demon Crown wearer."

"Demon… Crown?"

"Yeah. That thing's caused more problems than Ballos. It's a blue helmet with a red gem. If you were here when Jack was killed, you should have seen it."

Arc nodded.

"Anyways, that thing always seems to bring out the take-over-the-world instinct in people, according to my studies. Last time, some guy called 'the Doctor' took almost every mimiga to work as slaves to grow red flowers, which make mimiga go insane when they eat them. He was going to turn them into an army and attack the Surface."

Arc nodded once more. It was a lot of information, but he could take it. Now he knew that the 'Surface' was the surface of the planet below.

"I'm not sure how this new Crown Wearer is going to do his conquering. You know what? I should introduce you to my partners."

"Partners? What are you talking about?"

"I'm not from this village… and I'm glad of it. You'd be completely uneducated if you grew up here. I live out in the Sand Zone."

"Sand Zone… is that another place where there's a village?"

The mimiga shook his head. "No. There's only two buildings out there. One belongs to the Brace siblings, and the other one belongs to me and my partners."

Arc was eager. If he defeated the new Crown Wearer, he would probably end up meeting the other robots, and then he would figure out where he was… made, and why he was here.

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><p>"This is the hero Arthur's house. It used to be somewhat of a base, but now it's more of a destination point for anyone who wants to come here. After all, the teleporter's here."<p>

"Teleporter?"

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><p>Arc was amazed. All he had to do was select a location and BAM! He was sent there in a clear glass tube.<p>

The Sand Zone, surprisingly… was full of sand.

"Watch your step… and avoid the Horizontal Fliers!"

Arc thought that his new friend was making up words until he saw some insects that flew at a perfect ninety degrees from walls. "Oh, um… since we're going to be travelling together… I'm Arc."

The mimiga grunted. "Okay. My name's Bran, but you can call me 'Doc.'"

Arc scrunched his face. "'Doc?'"

Bran nodded. "Yeah, just like that. Oh, look. There's the Brace siblings' place."

Arc turned to look at where Doc was pointing. It was a wooden shack with a sign that had a wine glass on it in neon purple. "Brace siblings? Any relation with Curly Brace?"

Doc smiled. "A bright one, you are. Curly woke up with them, and raised them for her own… or so they say."

The door suddenly flew open. "DDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCCCCCCCCCC!"

A girl with red hair burst out from the shack, looking very angry. "I told you, it _was_ three! The algorithm makes absolutely no sense at all unless Y=3!"

Arc was a little surprised. The girl had green coverings for ears, too. "You're… a robot!"

The girl turned towards Arc. "No duh, Einstein! You're one, too! What's the big surprise?"

Doc grabbed Arc. "Uh, Arc… she's one of the few who stayed behind because of a request by Curly herself. She and two others are like police; they look out for many people."

The girl was _very_ close to Arc now. "You look… different then the others. What model are you?"

Doc dragged her away. "Elizabeth! Calm down! This young man's memory was lost! He doesn't know anything."

Elizabeth smiled, which Arc found eerie. This girl's moods seemed to change at the drop of a hat. "Um… hello, Elizabeth. My name's Arc."

Elizabeth slipped out of Doc's grasp. "Oh, now, now. You can call me Liz. 'Arc?' Is that your real name, or designation?"

Arc held up his hand and showed her his tattoo. "I gave it to myself from this thing."

Liz looked at it and shook her head. "Nope, don't know anything about it. Ah, well. I was hoping you were one of the Alpha-series…"

Arc was a little unhappy with the girl's reaction. What was he, substandard? "_What? _What's so special about Alpha-series?"

Elizabeth looked up. "_What's so special?_ Alpha-series are one of the greatest series of robots ever to exist! Quote and Curly were Alphas, and look how strong they were! Quote could easily take out probably all three of us Protectors with that little pistol he calls a Polar Star!"

Quote gasped. "I found a gun called a Polar Scatterspray! Do you think that there's a connection?"

She went from indignant and fierce to calm and curious in about half a second. "'Polar Scatterspray?' Never heard of that before. Hey Doc, can I keep him? He's so full of surprises. He might even be a custom model!"

Doc grabbed onto Arc's arm. "He's coming with me for now, but I think you can play with him later."

Arc did not like the sound of that.

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><p>Doc spoke bracingly to Arc as they walked away. "Liz is a good girl, I guess… but she's a little wild. She's not at all like the other two Protectors. She seems… what would humans call it? Bi-polar. Her moods swing very easily, and can become very violent if anything's out of place… even the smallest things. She can be nice, of course… when she wants to."<p>

Arc grinned. "What, is she obsessive/compulsive? If something is moved at an odd angle, will she turn it straight?"

Bran was surprised. "Yeah, that's another thing she does. Her mood goes kaplooie if anything's out of place, even little things like that!... we're here."

Arc looked up. Unlike the Brace siblings' home, this shack didn't look like it had a decent chance against the elements. "You live here?"

Doc nodded. "Me and my two friends… although I tend to go away a lot, because they send me hints that they want to be alone…"

Doc knocked. "I'm back!"

The door opened by itself. Remembering his encounter with the _other_ door that moved by itself, Arc whipped out his gun. Doc looked at him strangely. "What are you doing? This always happens."

They walked in.

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><p>There was an old lady sitting on a rocking chair and an old man with strange red-lensed glasses. The lady was arguing with the man. "Oh, come on, Booster! If the fourth dimension were that unstable, people would have dropped from other ages here a long time ago! Magic may cause things to differentiate, but it doesn't cause any retroactive retroclosure!"<p>

"Jenka, my equations aren't wrong. Using the variables M, F, and A, I have successfully figured out the logical laws that magic exists by. According to this-" He pointed at a complex diagram. "-time is _as_ affected by magical energy as matter and potential energy are! This entire island could collapse into a black hole at any moment due to the amount of power used to keep it up!"

"Oh, come on. You got the exponent in your second equation wrong. You _know_ that it would be M to the Ath, not M to the Fth. You did this on purpose, didn't you?"

Professor Booster smiled. There was no way that he could hide anything from Jenka. He had tried for ten years to convince her that science was better than magic, but only half-succeeded. Now they talked about a combination of magic and science, something Booster would have used to think absurd.

"'Ey, Booster, Jenka. I brought somebody home with me."

The two old folks turned towards the robot. "Who is it?"

"It's a robot; his name is Arc."

Professor Booster walked towards Arc, inspecting him closely. "Cheekbones seem to suggest that he's an Alpha, but he doesn't have a face groove and his entire muscular structure seems off of normal. Could be a custom job, though."

Arc nodded. That was what Liz had told him, minus the fact that he looked sort of like an Alpha-series in his face. "I don't remember anything after waking up in a cave."

Booster chuckled. "Seems like you and Quote have a lot in common, then. Let's see if I can get that memory repaired, shall I?"

Arc was ecstatic. Memory repairs? That sounded great!

Jenka frowned. "Why don't we just look for Ma Pignon? That's what Curly did."

Booster didn't miss a beat. "Remember where Quote said he found it? In a shelf above the cemetery, and it was lying about being a special mushroom. Then, when he tried to pick it, it attacked."

Arc was astonished. "A _mushroom_ attacked him?"

Doc grinned. "Vicious things, mushrooms. They clobber the living daylights out of anyone who comes near."

"Aah, here we go! Huh? Dang!"

The machine that Professor Booster pulled out was destroyed. It looked like it had been gutted. "Doc, I thought I asked you to repair this thing!"

Doc looked defensive. "You also asked me to do a half-dozen other things! I'm an engineer and a fairly good technician, but I'm no Itoh!"

Booster looked apologetic. "Sorry, Arc. This thing got wrecked when an earthquake hit the Sand Zone."

Arc wasn't pleased, but he understood. "Alright, then. If no one minds, I would like to get going…"

Jenka muttered and shook her head. "Youngsters… always in a hurry…"

Doc was a little frazzled at Arc's abrupt decision. "Going? Where?"

Arc smiled. "Back to our good friend Elizabeth. If anyone can tell me anything about myself, it will probably be her."

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><p><strong>Well, another chapter done! This one isn't as sad as the last one… in fact, it's rather happy! Hope you enjoyed it!<strong>


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